Martin Skans

Tuesday, 9 February 2016

For the fourth game, I chose the PSP version that was available for the Vita. This remake, while not being the latest one, still has remade graphics and rearranged music scores. Apparently, the latest remake is in the same 3D style as the remake of the previous game, but the PSP version I played is still in 2D.

For the character development, the fourth installment goes in another direction than the previous games. The group size is now a maximum of five, with the second and fourth slot being in the back. During different parts of the storyline, characters leave or join your group and each one is locked to a certain job type. Each character has a single experience bar, and when leveling up, unlocks abilities and spells related to that character. Near the very end of the story, the game unlocks the possibility to choose what characters to bring to the last dungeon. For most of the game though, you are playing what the game tells you to at the moment. There are a couple of optional areas where an event is missable because of this, because the character needed for it to trigger might already have left the group if you get there after progressing the main story.

The game's story starts in a darker and more serious tone than previously. The main character, being a general in the fleet of the king, is ordered to do some pretty bad stuff. He soon starts doubting himself, and what follows is the classic theme where the character throughout the game turns into the hero that later saves the world. The side characters that are encountered and are part of your group also add their stories to mitigate the otherwise pretty direct storyline.

There is really not much more to say. The game was very enjoyable, it leads to a pretty epic finale, and has a story that kept me invested in the game. It goes back a bit on the complexity of the character development, but still stays a solid game in the end.

After finishing the game, there are some possible extra content in the form of a dungeon that has different challenges depending on which characters you bring with you. It gives you a bit of character background through these as well. It was pretty fun to try it out, but I did not feel like playing it through with all the characters.

Bundled with this version of Final Fantasy was Final Fantasy: After Years. It is meant as an epilogue to IV. I did not enjoy this extra content at all. It reused already played areas and bosses from the original game. On top of this it forced some annoying party restrictions and game mechanics, and was built up around stand-alone episodes that did not interest me much. I actually just stopped playing it in favor of going to the next game in the series.

Saturday, 26 September 2015

The third game I actually started playing a while ago, and only finished it recently when picking up my Nintendo DSi again. The graphics for the DSi version are completely remade, featuring 3-dimensional models used in cut scenes and battle animations. While walking around in dungeons and in the overworld, the camera angle is now isometric. The top screen of the DSi shows a constant view of the world map when traveling, which was useful but maybe not the most important point. The music was also resampled but is still in the same spirit as the original.

It is clear that they have looked at the two previous games when creating the character development system for the third game in the series. With the bad and good from the two previous systems in mind, they have created something that works very well. Instead of leveling individual skills or being locked to a job, now you can switch jobs during gameplay. From the beginning, all four characters in your group are Freelancers with no specific abilities. Very soon the story unlocks the first batch of jobs from which to choose, after which at three more times during the game more jobs get unlocked. Each job has an extra ability, for example throw for the ninja, or black magic for the black mage. When playing a character as a chosen job, the job level for that job goes up and at the same time the overall character level goes up. This means you will likely have a number of levels in different jobs for each character by the end of the game, but it does not affect base stats as much since those stats are based on the character level. I really like this job-based system. It allows you a lot of freedom in setting up your group the way you want, as well as some tactical decisions for different parts of the game. It still takes a while to switch job if you want to get the level of that job up a bit, but usually when new jobs are unlocked they are already valid choices around the first levels. The best part is that it avoids having to level up each individual skill, since a job comes with these attributes. As an example, the weapon types are fully controlled by the selected job instead of there being a stat for each weapon. There are a lot of jobs to try out as well so there is definitely replayability in trying out new combinations. Also, you get to keep the same four characters in your party throughout the story, so you can rely on all the characters when planning for what is ahead.

The story feels much more well-structured than that of the previous two games. There is a better progression, and the villages and areas to visit felt more interesting to me. Unlocking new jobs at different points also brings some new mechanics to explore as the game goes on. On top of that, I did not get lost as much as in the previous games. The game almost always gave me enough information that I could find the next location even when having to search the world map.

The job system is one of the strong aspects of the game, but far from the only thing that makes the game good. With a well put together story and an awesome soundtrack, this game is definitely my favorite among the first three. Coming up next is the Super Nintendo era of games.

The second game in the series was very different from the first in many aspects. For my play through, I chose to play the PSP remake on the Playstation Vita. This version has improved graphics and music compared to the original on the NES. I also think some NPCs have been added to explain certain mechanics in the beginning, although I could be wrong as I did not play the original. My save file after finishing the game says 22.5h of play time, not including any reloads of course.

In the second installment, the series starts being more story-driven, with the opening being a fight that you loose whatever you do. The game plays the death music then awakes you somewhere else to start your quest. This type of involved story-telling keeps on going throughout the game. Already near the start, the world opens up, so that very early in the game you can actually reach areas where you have no chance to survive. Paired with it sometimes being unclear where to go next, this can sometimes be a challenge. It brings a sense of achievemenrt though, when later in the game your party is strong enough to take on those areas.

There is no job selection screen before starting the game, nor can you choose any jobs during the game. This is because of the new mechanic for skill learning that was introduced. Instead of choosing the direction of a character, each skill and stat has an experience bar. This includes weapon skills, all learned spells and some general things like HP, mana, defense and dodge. These attributes all level up based on how many times they are used. I will go more into the effect of this in a bit. Generally it is supposed to develop any character in the areas you use the most thus creating the job for that character by playing it. The permanent group size is three, with different side characters joining the group as number four during different parts of the game. The side characters have some predefined stats when they join, but can then be developed using the same skill system until they leave the group. Because of the fact that they are always temporary though, you can never really rely on them taking on a certain role. The side-characters do add to the story though.

Now I guess we have to talk about the thing that most people seem to remember most from this game. the skill development system. Like mentioned, you level up stats and skills by using them. This seems like a pretty good idea, and it is rather cool to be able to create characters with any combination of skills, that are not locked down by a job. In practice though, several things in this system make it kind of awkward. For example, because the best way to level up HP is to get injured, I found no reason to put my mages in the back row to begin with. If they do not get hit they will continue to be weak. Same thing with the agility stat that controls dodge for avoiding damage. Because I leveled one of my characters bare-handed, to be like a monk, that character never used a shield. This in turn led him to never get good at avoiding damage because, yes, you have to avoid damage to get better at it. At least he had more than three times the HP of the other characters at the end. Despite this though, he took nearly half his HP from certain attacks. Especially annoying were leech attacks in the final dungeon, where I had to kill him off everytime I met a certain enemy, otherwise that enemy would just heal up automatically every round. The worst thing to level up though was magic. Each spell has its own experience bar and if you do not actively use them all the time, the spell will never level up enough. As an example, to level resurrection you have to get party members killed so that you can use it. There are exploits to get around some of this. For example, you can attack your own characters to get skill experience. Not so fun, but it gets you where you want to get. Despite the system having many problems, including making it hard to quickly grind if stuck at the end, it was still interesting to explore.

All in all, an interesting Final Fantasy game, although with many mechanics problems. The skill system made it annoying at times, but the story was more complex than the first game. The remake had some extra material, but I was not really tempted to try any of it after completing the game. I did not think that it was a bad game, but not awesome either.

By the way, one thing I feel I have to mention is the end boss. He was a joke after finding the Blood Sword, which damages a percentage of the maximum health of the monster and returns it to the attacker. A bit of an anticlimax after getting there, but if an item is part of the game I will use it!

Sunday, 7 June 2015

I played the first game on the iPad, which is a few versions after the original NES version. Through those versions of the game, the artwork has been remade as well as improvements of the music and sound. While doing this, the translations have been redone as well. The original game had bugs that made some spells useless and those are also fixed in later versions.

Some extra content has been added somewhere along the way. For those who would like to have something grind for after beating the game, there are four four large dungeons (one for each crystal) that become unlocked during the game, containing bosses from the other games in the series (as well as the boss music from those games during the encounters). Near the end of the game another even harder dungeon is also unlocked.

The iOS version is generally pretty good. The touch interface can be a bit annoying when trying to walk in certain areas. It is quite easy to put the finger down in a way that sets the character off in a different direction than intended. It might not feel like something that can affect a game like this, but there are places where you do not want to walk more steps than you have to or walk on the wrong tile. There is a resume feature that lets you just close the app and then resume where you left off later which is very nice for this format.

This first game gives you four character slots, and you can choose freely among six classes for all positions. At first I started with the suggested setup of Warrior, Thief, White Mage and Black Mage, but found that I did not really enjoy the touch interface too much when it came to spells. Thus I restarted and rerolled the group as Warrior, Warrior, Monk, and White Mage. This is the group I then played with until the end.

Story-wise, the game is pretty simple. Visit the four crystals one by one and slay the boss that is tainting it, but the end of the game actually has a semi-nice twist to it (even though it does not really occur until the last boss explains his motives). Even though you have a map to explore, that gets bigger as more modes of transportation unlocks, there is most of the time a string of specific things you have to do to unlock the next thing and so on. It could be me, but there were a few times in the game where I was left not knowing where to go next. Having a little more patience exploring might have given clues, but some of them seemed a little bit far-fetched and I guess I felt more like progressing the story than trying to find out where to go. At those times I used one of the game guides that can be found via Google.

With this version, and my group setup, the game was not very hard at all. I am guessing the game has been made easier since the NES version, especially since you can save anywhere, but I am not exactly sure. My first group wipe happened at the end of the game, at the end boss, after which I teleported out and ran through the dungeon once more to get that extra grind to beat him.

My save file from just before the end boss says 17 hours, where the characters were all at level 54. After beating the game I spent about four hours on the extra content, clearing out the four bosses of the earth dungeon and two of the bosses in the water dungeon. After that it became clear I would have to grind more, as the two last bosses in that dungeon (optional order) owned me at level 58. I might get back to clear them out at a later time, but I was more interested in going on to the next game!

So to sum it up, the classic game where it started, is addictive in its own way. I liked grinding through it but found exploring the overworld a bit boring. A story was at least there keeping it interesting even though it is less advanced than what we are used to nowadays. I am glad I have finally played and beaten this game and I will return with my thoughts on the next game from the NES era of Final Fantasy games shortly.

Recently, I picked up my Nintendo DSi again after a few years and realized I was pretty close to the end of the Final Fantasy III remake. I finished the game, and suddenly felt this urge to play another Final Fantasy game. Around the same time, I started taking the bus to work, so I got the first Final Fantasy for the iPad to play while traveling. Thus it began... I just could not stop there, so I went and got that Playstation Vita I have been needing to be able play the PSOne remakes and continued with the second game. As I was completing the fourth game this weekend and started looking towards Final Fantasy IV: After Years, I realized I have been neglecting my blogging.

That is why I am now starting a little blog series to follow my progress. I will play through each of the games in the main series at least until the story has been played through. If I feel inclined, I will continue on some of the bonus content available, otherwise I will just move on to the next one. Hopefully, I will get through a few of them before life reprioritizes things!

As a little background, my Final Fantasy started on Gameboy back in the days with Final Fantasy Legend. I remember making it to the final boss and failing and never really finishing the game. It is one of the tragic game memories of my child-hood. Nevertheless, it got me hooked and interested in this type of games. Despite my interest, I played games on the PC most of the time after the NES/GB era, so I missed out on several related games except for VII, but it hit at a time when it did not fit very well into my life. Later, once I got my Xbox 360 and a game called Lost Odyssey, I rediscovered my love to that genre though. So when Final Fantasy XIII came out, I got the Playstation 3 version and played it all the way through, not finishing until I had the 100% platinum trophy. That is when I beat my first Final Fantasy game. Hearing a lot of good things about certain other games in the series, and seeing that there are remakes of these games for current platforms, I could no longer avoid going back to play the games I missed, so here we are!

Friday, 28 February 2014

Become one with the shadows while trying to overcome obstacles in Thie--. Sorry, I mean Contrast.

Contrast is a cute but short game downloadable through the Playstation Store. I have not checked for which other platforms it is available, but my version is for the PS4. The game revolves around a girl and the people close to her. You take the role as her friend that no-one else seems able to see. No-one else in the world but the girl seems to be visible to you either, except for when a light source shows their shadows on a wall.

Shadows is the key word of the game, since the character you are controlling can shift between existing in the 3-dimensional world and existing as a 2-dimensional shadow on the wall. Whenever you are a shadow, other shadows will hold you up or block you which leads to most of the puzzle solving in the game. By directing spotlights, jumping on moving shadows and placing boxes between a light source and a wall, you can create ways of getting across gaps and climb up to balconies far up.

All in all it is a casual problem solving game where few puzzles gave a lot of trouble. Most of the time there are not that many options and you can often easily see how you are supposed to get up to a place. Some jumps can be a bit tricky where you have to switch between 2d and 3d in the air, but a couple of attempts should get you there.

There is a light (pun intended) story-telling going on, but mostly what will get you through the game is the mystery of what is reality and what is not. Are you a fiction of the girl's imagination as the other shadows seem to think? If you are, why can you affect things in the world of the little girl?

All in all a nice little game for those who like some casual problem solving and some cool tricks with perspectives, but do not expect a game that will last for several hours.

Sunday, 16 June 2013

The new Tomb Raider game goes back in time to tell the story of how Lara Craft became the adventurer we know her as today. You start off in the classic scenario where you get stuck on an island with no weapons and few skills, and then as you go you get more options and can upgrade your gear. You get some of the usual game weapons, and the bow, which is by far my favourite. Not only because it is different, but also because it allows you to set fire to the arrows (and that is useful).

The enemies are mostly as enemies usually are in this type of game, behaving the same way from fight to fight and repeating the same phrase as each other quite often. From time to time combat has also has a few quick-time elements, where one has to press the right buttons that show up on screen. These events are pretty basic and most of the time it is the same button that is used.

The game was a slow-starter for me. It took me a quite a while into the game before I discovered that I had gotten a bit more immersed into the story and scenery. After that I really enjoyed it though. The side-characters to me felt a bit shallow from time to time, and a bit stereotypical. It happened a couple of times that a character would be emotional about something, after which he/she suddenly just changes his/her opinion without a good reason just because of a trivial comment from another character.

Advancing in the game world is pretty linear, without many possibilities to explore off the path. There are some optional tombs that add a bit of problem-solving to the game though. They take the form of using different mechanics to try to reach a treasure. These are pretty fun breaks from the normal gameplay, but do not bring anything more to the actual game.

All in all I liked the game, despite it not being a totally unique game. It still had a good feel to it and some bits and pieces here and there that differentiated it from other similar games.